The surface water system in the Clower Creek Basin has undergone major alterations over the past 100 years. Historical survey does not identify Clower Creek by name, but aerial photographs and survey from the mid-1900s confirm the presence of agriculture and the extent of the creek, which meandered northeast through the entire basin and terminated at a wetland near the east basin boundary. The entirety of Clower Creek is predominantly marine. Development in the basin was well under way by the 1970s. The basin is about 85% developed, with over 40% commercial development. Stormwater from these commercial areas flows through a network of pipes and ditches to Clower Creek. For basin details see: Little Sarasota Bay Water Quality Management Plan (2012)

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Clower Creek

Water Chemistry Ratings | Freshwater Portion of the Creek

Creek Conditions Ratings are based on comparing nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorophyll and dissolved oxygen to water quality guidelines or regulations.
Florida law defines a maximum allowable concentration of nitrogen, phosphorus,
and chlorophyll a, and a minimum allowable concentration of dissolved oxygen in these streams.
Learn more about these ratings and how they are calculated »

Chart Legend

Trend Line

Annual Mean

Threshold

Water quality data are not available for the freshwater portion of this creek.

Water Chemistry Ratings | Tidal Portion of the Creek

Creek Conditions Ratings are based on comparing nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorophyll and dissolved oxygen to water quality guidelines or regulations.
Florida law defines a maximum allowable concentration of chlorophyll a and a minimum allowable concentration of dissolved oxygen in these streams.
Florida has no regulatory thresholds for nitrogen or phosphorus in tidal creeks so trends are used to rate the creeks.
Learn more about these ratings and how they are calculated »

Data for the following WBIDs is averaged when compiling the data below:

Five-year Rolling Average

Chlorophyll a

The rating for Chlorophyll a is determined by comparing the annual arithmetic mean of its sampled values to fixed target and threshold values. The annual arithmetic mean is shown in the graph at left, as compared to its established target and threshold values.

Five-year Rolling Average

Other Measures of Creek Health:

Oysters

Because they are immobile and will tolerate a fairly wide salinity range, eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) are valuable as an indicator of the relative health of aquatic ecosystems in the tidally-influenced portions of coastal creeks. Sarasota County has established an oyster monitoring program to track the location, types, and status of oyster reefs. Data from this monitoring program is shown below.
Learn more about Oysters »

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Impervious Features

Rain that falls on land that is in a natural state is absorbed and filtered by soils and vegetation as it makes it way into underground aquifers. However, in developed areas, "impervious surfaces" impede this process and contribute to polluted urban runoff entering surface waters. These surfaces include human infrastructure like roads, sidewalks, driveways and parking lots that are covered by impenetrable materials such as asphalt, concrete, brick and stone, as well as buildings and other permanent structures. Soils that have been disturbed and compacted by urban development are often impervious as well.
Learn more about Impervious Features »

Land Use / Land Cover

Land use within a creek's watershed has a major effect on its water quality. In general, less development means better water quality.
Land Cover/Land Use classifications categorize land in terms of its observed physical surface characteristics (e.g. upland or wetland),
and also reflect the types of activity that are taking place on it (agriculture, urban/built-up, utilities, etc.). Florida uses as its
standard a set of statewide classifications which were developed by the Florida Department of Transportation.
Learn more about Land Use and Land Cover »

Acreage and Percentage within each Land Use / Land Cover Category for Clower Creek Basin

Land Use Classification

1990

1995

1999

2005

2011

2014

Trend

Urban & Built-up

22278%

22177.8%

22077.4%

21976.9%

21976.9%

21976.9%

Rangeland

00%

10.3%

10.3%

10.3%

10.3%

10.3%

Upland Forests

3010.6%

3010.6%

3010.6%

3010.6%

3010.6%

3010.6%

Water

134.4%

155.1%

145%

145%

145%

145%

Wetlands

10.2%

00%

10.5%

10.5%

10.5%

10.5%

Barren Land

51.6%

00%

00%

00%

00%

00%

Transportation and Utilities

155.2%

176.1%

176.1%

196.7%

196.7%

196.7%

Data Sources

The data sources listed below provided water quality data used to create the report on this page. Not all data sources provided data for every creek, and not every Creek Conditions Report used data from all listed data sources. While some data sources have no data for the scored year, they provided period-of-record (historical high, mean, low) data. Click on a data source name to review its metadata.

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